Germany to Start Legal Action Against Nazi Judges, Minister Assures

March 21, 1960

BONN (Mar. 20)

Legal action against judges suspected of passing terror sentences during the Nazi regime will be started before May 8 even if police investigations of their cases are not completed, Justice Minister Fritz Schaeffer told a press conference.

Such action will void application of the statute of limitations which will protect former Nazis from prosecution after that date, the Bonn Minister said. It was also disclosed that the Ministry of Justice of Bavaria had completed preliminary examination of charges against 92 Bavarian judges and lawyers. The charges were contained in a recently published Czechoslovak booklet, “Criminals in Judges Robes.”

The investigations indicated that 55 of the 92 did not hold the offices attributed to them, the Bavarian Ministry said, and that the sentences charged against the 92 were not of the kind that would serve as grounds for legal proceedings.